Remi repeatedly hit his head against his hand as he leaned against a wall in the bridge of the Vengeance. They captured Lucy.. And I couldn't stop them.. God damn it... "DAMN IT ALL!" He swung his arm, knocking over the few tools that were laying ontop of a console.
"L-Lucy? Before they take you from your ship.. I-..I'm sorry I couldn't keep them from you.."
...
"R..Remi.. I just want to tell you that I.." -static-
"Lu-LUCY! I'll find you.. I'll come for you, Lucy! Just.. Just wait for me.."
-static- "Rem-...I...ov.."
He drops his head onto the console, tears starting to flow from his eyes. I can't take this anymore.. I just can't.
Remi had given up. He could not let Lucy rot in that prison, but he could not let himself get captured. His only choice was to turn himself over though... He couldn't leave Lucy to her fate.
...
"I'm on board of the shuttle now..." Remi shook his head, hiding the tears that were falling again... He heard the pilot of the Aurochs confirm that Remi was on board, and they proceeded to break the docking sequence with the Vengeance.
"Master Remi is not to be taken prisoner! Destroy the shuttle! A Glaive impacted the side of the Aurochs, destroying its shield generator, engine, and tossing it on its side, knocking over everyone in the ship. It was one of the crew members of the Vengeance. Those bastards. A few seconds later, the Vengeance fired its primary turrets on the Aurochs, destroying it, Remi's yells filling the comms channels as it was obliterated.
...
But things were not as they seemed.
Remi lay in the escape pod, clutching his wrist by his hand... Or well, where his hand used to be. It was caught by the pods airlock, and it ripped off his hand when the doors shut. He also was suffering from a huge gash on his chest from a piece of shrapnel from the exploding Aurochs. The Glaive knocked him free from the grips of the Marines, and he immediately stood and ran at his first chance. He had only seconds to run to the back of the ship to get to the pod before the first blasts hit. The explosion knocked him backwards into the pod, and the doors slammed shut on his hand as it immediately launched. They.. They actually did it... Bless them, and their souls if any were lost.. He groaned in pain, trying to reach for the communications console from the ground... He began to send a high encryption message, that will travel slowly and undetected through space. It might be minutes, it might be hours, but it will reach its mark...
"Lu..Lucy..." He coughs sickeningly, blood coming with it..."I-.. I need you.. If you get this message in time... I'm alive.." He sloppily inputs his coordinates, some distance from any landmark in the Burgundy system... A warning from the pod rings through a small speaker. "Passenger death is imminent. Enabling cryo-stasis systems." Remi closed his eyes, and smiled stupidly... Maybe she'll find me... Maybe not... But atleast.. If she doesn't.. I won't suffer of starvation or suffocation...
"Remi!? Remi! was that you?! please respond...please!"
She waited for a brief moment, only getting static in return.
"Damn it! please! say something! anything please!"
Lucy began a full sprint toward her bomber which was on a landing pad down on Marne, when she reached her ship she immediately jumped up the nose mounted ladder and into the cockpit, pulling the canopy down and slamming the engine ignition key into place, frantically she began to key in the numbers of the coordinates that had been transmitted to her.
The onboard computer chimed in: "All systems operational, launch not recommended, ship status is not green, internal damage repairs incomplete."
"Oh to hell with you, stupid computer!"
She pulled her helmet down and sealed the visor, strapping herself to the pilot's seat and pushing the throttle as far forward as it would go, her ship lurching forward sloppily and then turning up at an angle and launching toward the sky. Within seconds the scenery changed from the clouds and sky of Marne to the blackness and silence of space. Banking her ship hard toward the direction of the coordinates received she slammed down on the Cruise Engine Ignition button, her ship unnaturally lurching forward again and then shooting off in the direction of the signal as the Cruise engines came online.
"Damn it...damn it! I'll find you, I swear it I will!"
Lucy had opened the escape pod, where Remi lay, his left hand missing, and a large piece of steel that had been jammed into his flesh diagonally from his abdomen, to just under his neck. It appears it had been stuck more deeply into his gut than his chest, the steel only just cutting into the flesh, his ribs still slightly in tact. Lucy almost panicked, wrapping the once-more bleeding wrist with as many bandages as possible, the risk of him dying by blood loss now returning after exiting stasis. There was not much she could do to help his chest wound, however.
She started to cry as she looked down at his bloodstained body, he barely clinging to life.
...
"Chalons! I have Remi on my ship, and he's seriously hurt! Get a med team ready!"
"What- Mister Ayleward is still alive?! Go ahead and dock in Three, we'll have several medics waiting for you to land.
She pulled her Basilisk into the bay, the Hangar quickly re-pressurizing, and the medics rushing out to the opening cargo hatches. Lucy had carried Remi to the cargo lift, and the medics lifted him off, and onto the stretcher, already inserting needles to give him much needed fluids, and checking his pulse. It was almost non-existent.
"We need a defib on the ready! We're going to lose him soon!"
They began to wheel him down the hallway, and Lucy just leaned against her ship, crying... They had just attached a monitor to Remi, and it gave several weak blips, before going silent, and then an alarm going off, telling everyone around him that his heart had stopped.
"Oh god, Remi! He can't die now!"
"We're losing him! He'll die if we don't hurry! Where is that Defib?!"
Lucy ran after the Medics, not wanting to lose sight of Remi... They had already charged a Defibrillator.. "Clear!" The machine beeps loudly once, and then starts to give consistent, weak blips. The medics left quickly, and the surgeons entered the room immediately. Lucy continued to cry, and try to see through the window, even though it had darkened and turned solid black as the surgery began.
...
Hours passed, the first group of Surgeons being replaced by others, one whom of which was an expert on cybernetics. One of the first doctors patted Lucy on the head, as she pressed her face into her knees... "It's bad... But he might be able to make it through. If he's stable when surgery is finished, one of the others will begin to attach his new cybernetic hand." Lucy just nodded.
...
A nurse touched Lucy on the shoulder lightly, which scared her for a moment. The nurse recommended that she should go and eat while Remi rested, and she would check on him later on to see if he was awake, so she could visit. She used the word "Deary" alot. The nurse led Lucy to the dining hall, and left her alone for about a half an hour, to return and tell her that he had just woken up. "Remi is awake?!" The nurse smiled and nodded, and just told her not to smother him just yet. She ran to his room anyway. She peeked into the door, and looked at him. He was groggily yelling at a screen in his room, which was showing one of Gallias more popular soap operas. "...Damn it Tom, she's cheating on you! Silly bastard..." He threw a pillow at the screen as she began to speak... "Re-Remi? He quickly perked up, looking at the door. A huge smile came across his face, making it seem as if he completely forgot that he was even hurt. "Lucy! ... You're a real sight for sore eyes, you know? She blushed, and smiled at him... "I'm.. I'm glad your still alive.. Remi.." He chuckled. "What, did you think some shrapnel and an explosion would kill me?" She looked down at the ground, a little upset...
He opened his arms wide, and smiled at her, waiting for a reaction for a moment... "Are you just going to leave me hanging here?" She smiled and blushed again, practically leaping into his arms, and clinging to him, pressing her face into his shoulder. He winced at the sudden impact, but ignored it, wrapping his arms as tightly around her as he could. She started crying again, and Remi almost did too, but he held it back. He has already shed a lot of tears. "I'm.. I'm happy you didn't die, Remi..." She stifled a sob into his shoulder, and he tightened his grip... "It's okay.. I'm fine now..."
...
"Hey, Lucy?" She sniffled. "Yeah..?" He tilted his head. "I told you I'd come for you... But, whatever happened to you protecting me? I protected you it seems. He chuckled and smiled at her, to let her know he was joking. "I.. You shouldnt've gotten hurt like that..." He shook his head. "No, really, it's fine. I'm supposed to be that cliche'd hero that is hurt in the process of rescuing the girl in distress! She smiled again and blushed at him. "You know, you're really cute when you're blushing like that." This only caused her cheeks to darken even further, and she gave out an excited sound, burying her face in his shoulder. "You.. Don't say things like that!" He laughed. "Is there something wrong with calling you cute? It's true you know. She let out a little sound again, and he couldn't help but smile again."N.. No, nothings wrong.." They stayed like that for a little bit...
"Hey, Lucy.. I've something I should tell you, come closer." She climbed onto his bed, opposite of him, leaning up against the wall. He turned his head towards her, and softly took her chin, and started pulling her face closer, himself leaning towards her... Her cheeks were a shade of pink, and she closed her eyes... Remi could even feel his cheeks burning. "Here's what I wanted you to know.." He pressed his lips to hers, giving her a long, soft kiss...
"What an excellent day..." d'Orleans muttered to himself, pleased by the apparent success of his plan. Adrien was swelling with pride. Ayleward was dead, the Vengeance was destroyed, and Athenais was en route back to Avallon at this very moment. The Direction d'Operations Speciales did a great job, and he, it's Directeur, played a major part in the operation. An excellent day indeed. He briefly tapped his right ear; a little quirk he kept following when switching communication frequencies on his communications implant. "Attention, all personnel, evacuate docking bay 8. Code Beta, get us a trauma team on standby outside the airlock."
When he arrived at his destination, Athenais was already waiting for him. "It's a miracle I survived, isn't it?" she chuckled lightly, while the trauma team was already busy extracting deMallet, the pilot of the shuttle shot down by Ayleward's men, from his escape pod - quite a mess, he thought, and wondered about the Noble's chances of survival. Not like he really cared. deMallet had fallen into dishonor, and had been chosen to perform this task exactly for that reason. Lambert turned his head back towards the woman standing in front of her shuttle, arms crossed in front of her chest. "Indeed. We thought we'd lost you when Ayleward smashed your visor. I suppose we should start equipping more of our agents with bionic eye transmitters..." Athenais winked. "Tell the surgeons to install some when they fix up the rest of my head. Ayleward had been pretty rough, not exactly a gentlemen."
"I'm certain you didn't go easy on him either...well. We'll get you a doctor right away." "Cold as always, eh?" "Athenais. You know.." "Do I?"
Athenais winked again, then pursed her lips suggestively, closing in on Lambert. "No worries, Ayleward had my little dagger removed. It's perfectly safe." Lambert raised his hand, placing a finger on her lips, gently pushing her back. "I can't, and you know why. Get over it. I've already done more for you than I should today."
With a faint display of weakness on his face, a truly rare happening for the highly disciplined spy chief, Adrien left the room along the medic team, leaving behind a confused Athenais.
Remi bowed before Princess Arielle as she walked onto the bridge of her Valor. She nodded to him, and stood in the center, arms behind her back, and she watched space pass by. Remi smiled, happy to be around his Lady, and to serve her. He didn't love her in the sense that some would think, but more that he thought of her as a sister. He would bleed, and even die, for her.
Remi looked up- Gunfire down the hall, and he went to protect Arielle... What? He couldn't.. He couldn't move! He took a step, but it was slow... Exaggerated.. It took an eternity for him to take one step. He watched the doors to the bridge open, and the guards in the bridge shot down instantly. Remi kept trying to protect Arielle, but he was just too far.
The Prince walked in, aiming his gun at his sister. They spoke to each other... What did they say? He couldn't hear them. The Prince then started laughing, and just shot his sister. Killing her in cold blood. Remi screamed out loud, but no one seemed to hear him. The Princess fell to her knees, and then forwards, blood trickling from her wound. Remi tried harder still to reach her, but he just couldn't.
The Prince looked right at him, and began to laugh. He laughed so sadistically, so maniacally, and he left the bridge laughing, laughing, laughing...
"I MUST SAVE THE PRINCESS! MY LADY! I MUST SAVE HER! I... I..." Remi realized he was awake now, lying face first on the floor of the infirmary... "I must.. save her... My lady.. Arielle..." His ranting turned into incoherent mumbling, and he began sobbing on the floor of the infirmary. Someone was asking him what was wrong, and if he was okay, but all he could do was cry.